Best WBP trails for groms

heading up to the bike park this weekend with my son. it will be his first time riding in whistler, and my first time in many years, so i'm looking for recommendations of appropriate trails

for reference, my son is 7 and likes riding downhill ("climbing is boring!"). his favorite local trails are gearjammer on sfu (though he just rode nicoles for the first time and loved it) and bobsled on fromme (though recently he's been loving expresso)

so, fast and flowy and moderately technical. we're going to get three-run passes to start, and see how it goes. what should i be shooting for?

B-line, Crank it up. Ninja Cougar.

Think it would be nice if Whistler built a groms only (plus parent) trail.

Funshire Rolly drops, smoke and mirrors, Bluziuem, Wednesday Night Delight, Ho Chi Min Off B line is a good one.

Also Delboca Vista, Hornet, Monkey Hands (its a rated black but its not a hard one).

He should be fine on those, as I can take the GF on these and I don't get in trouble.

Pretty much agree with the above. You can always warm-up on Easy Does it… but not if you only have 3 runs. Then start on B-Line. Go early if you can, then it's not busy and the pinners sleep in.

Funshine Rollydrops is a step up. So see how he does on Ninja/Karate combo.

To maximize your 3 run pass, go hit the Wednesday Night Delight skills area just above Lower B-Line/Devil's Club; you could easily burn a 1/2 hour their without ticking off a lap.

Upper EZ Does It is closed right now for work. If your son rides those SFU/Fromme trails with confidence I would say B-Line will be an easy first lap for him. You probably want to ride behind him to run interference on faster riders (there is no passing allowed on green/blue trails, but this way no one can get on his tail with you there).

Good idea on the skills area, the drop to table on Weds Night is fun.

Agree with WH. Funshine Rolly Drops may be too hard for him. Especially if it's dry.

B line for warm up and then crank it up which he'd probably want to do again.

It shouldn't be an issue but the 3 run pass actually has 2 hour time limit to it s careful burning up time elsewhere. Don't' do 2 runs and go for lunch kinda thing

Here are my recomendations for 3 laps with a grom:

Lap 1: B line - Blueseum - wednesday night delight - B line - Ho chi Minh from bottom of Bline - HOD

Lap 2 : Ninja Cougar - Karate Monkey - across to Del Boca Vista - EZ does it down to the low entrance of Hornet (can be tricky to find, but bypasses the tech section of A-line. If you miss it, you'll just carry down EZ does it, no drama)

Lap 3 : depending on what he liked best between lap 1 and 2,

if Lap 1 preferred, go to Crank It Up

If Lap 2 preferred, go to either (Funshine - smoke[HTML_REMOVED]mirrors - bluezeum - full ho chi minh) or (upper/lower angry pirate).

Good luck, hope he has a great time.

Lap 2 : Ninja Cougar - Karate Monkey - across to Del Boca Vista

Would Ninja Cougar -[HTML_REMOVED] Del Boca Vista technically be against the rules of riding against the trail direction? Some people rip down that track all pumped up from Dirt Merchant. I've thought about it before and decided it would be against the park rules.

Would Ninja Cougar -[HTML_REMOVED] Del Boca Vista technically be against the rules of riding against the trail direction? Some people rip down that track all pumped up from Dirt Merchant. I've thought about it before and decided it would be against the park rules.

Ninja cougar- after atlantis-crab turns-del boca. No karate monkey which would bring you a bit lower. Or go karate monkey and take ez does it around to the second part of Del boca

As far as grom trails, In my experience from coaching dfx camps every grom is different and you gotta imagine riding all this on a tiny bike! Some kids ez does it is hard enough, or even too hard for some, then some are amazing and can make it down almost anything haha. Monitor fatigue, and try to ride right from opening the park is pretty quiet the first hour or so usually. If he's awesome on bobsled Nicole's then that's rad, green warm up with Del boca to start then b line and parts of orient express, bluezium, smoke n mirrors, the new map with the trails 'ranked' so you can follow a progression is pretty cool

DBV [HTML_REMOVED] Shady Acres are green runs, but people sure do rip thru them. I have noticed beginners standing aside for the pinners to go past. I too like to go fast down those trails, but I guess we should all be aware of the rating.

lots of truth on this thread: we did the ninja/karate combo to start and it was a big hit. followed up by funshine, smoke and mirrors, etc. which was a bit over his head. so last lap was bline all the way down, which was a great feel good finish. good times! not sure he's totally sold on the park, but after humping up to tunnel vision this afternoon he's definitely beginning to find the idea of earning your turns a bit suspect… i think we'll be back in the park before long

thanks!

I have a 7 y/o too and we rode many of the trails above last year. But on the jump/flow trails like CIU and in the boneyard biker cross course, I worried about him getting run over.

Is any blue trail pretty much fair game for the groms? Is that the general consensus? And is it safe to be way slower than the majority of riders on a trail like CIU?

Most 7 year olds, even ones with above average bike skills (Jackson Goldstones of the world excluding), don't go anywhere near the average speed on trails like CIU. Is that ok? I guess the answer is yes. But is it safe? That last question is sort of what I'm struggling with.

I noticed on the trail map that the boneyard biker cross course is now called "Family Cross". Last year it had some nice tables and was popular with rippers. The kids liked it but I didn't, it was imo way too hectic with all the traffic. Does the new name mean it's no longer a jump zone and is now quite safe for little kids? Or has it just been mellowed out a little bit? I recall there were some reasonably big tables on it in years past.

Personally I'd rather my kid stay mostly on the technical blues, because the speeds are much lower, but the kids always want to go on the jump trails. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I worry too much, but such is life as a parent.

There's a "no passing" policy on all blue and green runs at W/B. That said, there are no designated "slow" trails. I've found MOST folks are pretty respectful, especially of kids, on those trails. I would just ride tail gunner/blocker and warn them that a kid is up ahead. Then I'd accelerate up to my kid, who knows my voice, and tell them they should be looking for a safe place to pull off.

And you're right… my boy has started clearing A-Line and can clear most of Dirty, including the step ups and fall aways… but on 24" wheels, he can never go as fast as the big kids rolling bigger wheels. Simply impossible with the wheel size and the fact that he's only carrying 64 pounds of body weight. We either hit laps of these trails first thing in the morning, late in the day, or mid-week. We also wait for long visible gaps at the start, which is possible for both Dirty and A-Line the way they are situated. So you can be sure of a clear run for a long ways and at each of the natural breaks. This is also the way his DFX camps run them on A-Line and Dirty…. so I just took that from their playbook.